Deuteronomy:11-12

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* "Therefore you shall love the LORD your God , and keep His charge , His statutes , His judgments , and His commandments always . * Know today that I do not speak with your children , who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God , His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm -- * His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt , to Pharaoh king of Egypt , and to all his land ; * what He did to the army of Egypt , to their horses and their chariots : how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you , and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day ; * what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place ; * and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab , the son of Reuben : how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up , their households , their tents , and all the substance that was in their possession , in the midst of all Israel -- * but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did . * "Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today , that you may be strong , and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess , * and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers , to them and their descendants , "a land flowing with milk and honey .' * For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come , where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot , as a vegetable garden ; * but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys , which drinks water from the rain of heaven , * a land for which the LORD your God cares ; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it , from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year . * "And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today , to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul , * then I will give you the rain for your land in its season , the early rain and the latter rain , that you may gather in your grain , your new wine , and your oil . * And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock , that you may eat and be filled .' * Take heed to yourselves , lest your heart be deceived , and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them , * lest the LORD 's anger be aroused against you , and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain , and the land yield no produce , and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you . * "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul , and bind them as a sign on your hand , and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes . * You shall teach them to your children , speaking of them when you sit in your house , when you walk by the way , when you lie down , and when you rise up . * And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates , * that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them , like the days of the heavens above the earth . * "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do--to love the LORD your God , to walk in all His ways , and to hold fast to Him -- * then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you , and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves . * Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours : from the wilderness and Lebanon , from the river , the River Euphrates , even to the Western Sea , shall be your territory . * No man shall be able to stand against you ; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread , just as He has said to you . * "Behold , I set before you today a blessing and a curse : * the blessing , if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today ; * and the curse , if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God , but turn aside from the way which I command you today , to go after other gods which you have not known . * Now it shall be , when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess , that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal . * Are they not on the other side of the Jordan , toward the setting sun , in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal , beside the terebinth trees of Moreh ? * For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you , and you will possess it and dwell in it . * And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today . * "These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you to possess , all the days that you live on the earth . * You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods , on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree . * And you shall destroy their altars , break their sacred pillars , and burn their wooden images with fire ; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place . * You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things . * "But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses , out of all your tribes , to put His name for His dwelling place ; and there you shall go . * There you shall take your burnt offerings , your sacrifices , your tithes , the heave offerings of your hand , your vowed offerings , your freewill offerings , and the firstborn of your herds and flocks . * And there you shall eat before the LORD your God , and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand , you and your households , in which the LORD your God has blessed you . * "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today--every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes -- * for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you . * But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit , and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about , so that you dwell in safety , * then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide . There you shall bring all that I command you : your burnt offerings , your sacrifices , your tithes , the heave offerings of your hand , and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD . * And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God , you and your sons and your daughters , your male and female servants , and the Levite who is within your gates , since he has no portion nor inheritance with you . * Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see ; * but in the place which the LORD chooses , in one of your tribes , there you shall offer your burnt offerings , and there you shall do all that I command you . * "However , you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates , whatever your heart desires , according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you ; the unclean and the clean may eat of it , of the gazelle and the deer alike . * Only you shall not eat the blood ; you shall pour it on the earth like water . * You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil , of the firstborn of your herd or your flock , of any of your offerings which you vow , of your freewill offerings , or of the heave offering of your hand . * But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses , you and your son and your daughter , your male servant and your female servant , and the Levite who is within your gates ; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands . * Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land . * "When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you , and you say , "Let me eat meat ,' because you long to eat meat , you may eat as much meat as your heart desires . * If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you , then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you , just as I have commanded you , and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires . * Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten , so you may eat them ; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them . * Only be sure that you do not eat the blood , for the blood is the life ; you may not eat the life with the meat . * You shall not eat it ; you shall pour it on the earth like water . * You shall not eat it , that it may go well with you and your children after you , when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD . * Only the holy things which you have , and your vowed offerings , you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses . * And you shall offer your burnt offerings , the meat and the blood , on the altar of the LORD your God ; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God , and you shall eat the meat . * Observe and obey all these words which I command you , that it may go well with you and your children after you forever , when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God . * "When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess , and you displace them and dwell in their land , * take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them , after they are destroyed from before you , and that you do not inquire after their gods , saying , "How did these nations serve their gods ? I also will do likewise .' * You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way ; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods ; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods . * "Whatever I command you , be careful to observe it ; you shall not add to it nor take away from it . * "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams , and he gives you a sign or a wonder ,

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